


Safe and Sound

by specificskillset



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-27
Updated: 2012-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-17 03:31:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/specificskillset/pseuds/specificskillset
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Beta'd by the wonderful Meledy (mybrainandstuff over on Tumblr)</p>
    </blockquote>





	Safe and Sound

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the wonderful Meledy (mybrainandstuff over on Tumblr)

  
_I remember tears streaming down your face  
When I said I'd never let you go  
When all those shadows almost killed your light_  
  
There were men who wanted them dead. They'd learnt that, long ago, hiding in a mansion pretending they were helping. Erik had known that everything would come to this. Charles had denied and denied it, until Erik wondered whether the words had any meaning anymore.  
     Sometimes, he forgot. When he and Charles would whisper, and he would make promises he knew he couldn't keep when Charles said stay. Sometimes he would imagine that it was safe. That what they had was forever. But their differences were too great.   
  
  
 _I remember you said, Don't leave me here alone  
But all that's dead and gone and passed tonight_  
  
  
     He missed Charles sometimes. Missed his smile, missed his voice. Missed his power. Missed him even when his memories, their memories, were tainted by everything that had come since then.  
     He remembered Charles' face when he'd come back, weeks after the beach, asking him to see reason. But Erik knew he already was. Charles could have made him, should have made him, turn his back on his beliefs, but he didn't. Maybe that had been a mistake.  
     Because in the end, he's right. The humans wage war, with their plastic weapons, and Erik fights back with everything he can. Charles hides. Charles pretends that they can be saved. That everyone can be saved. Until they target him. Until he's taken and the survivors are left to no one in particular, running on their own. Erik tries his best to take care of the children.  
     He's powerful, the one strong force on the mutants side. When Charles is taken, he becomes more so. He's vicious, determined, unstoppable. He keeps going and going, one step behind. Until they slip up. Until he finds his opening. Until he finds Charles.  
  
 _Just close your eyes  
The sun is going down  
You'll be alright  
No one can hurt you now  
Come morning light  
You and I'll be safe and sound..._  
  
   It's night, almost four months since Charles had been captured. It'd been a hard few months, but he'd been driven. Not just to Charles, though Charles was certainly the reason. Not that the reason mattered. He finally had the upper hand. The Brotherhood grew every day. He was winning.  
     But when he finds Charles, none of it matters. He freezes, can't help but stare at the figure on the floor. Charles seems small, in an unfamiliar way. Erik's mind goes blank, except for a word. Broken. After everything he's been through, he's finally broken. After everything he's been through, something had been done to break him. Erik doesn't know, can't even begin to know, what that something was, but it fills him with a blind emotion.  
    Then there's a smile, but there's a touch of not-right to it. Erik falls to his knees. He holds Charles, and the smile changes. It's more real.     
    Erik realises Charles isn't surprised. Maybe he knew that Erik would come. Maybe he had realised the wordless things that passed between them before Erik had, years after the beach. Maybe Erik had known too, somewhere inside.  
    He whispers quietly in Charles' ear, telling him it's time to go home. Telling him that he's safe. And Charles just smiles.  
    'You're a liar,' he breathes. 'I'm glad you came,'  
  
  
 _Don't you dare look out your window  
Darling, everything's on fire  
The war outside our door keeps raging on  
Hold onto this lullaby  
Even when the music is gone..._  
  
     Erik carries Charles outside, to the helicopter and they fly. Charles looks out the window and Erik looks at him and tears fall without him noticing. He can't hear Charles in his head, and it feels empty. He can't think. There is rage, that's all he knows. He watches Charles, and it stops him ripping the city below them apart with his mind. Raven flies on and doesn't say a word.  
     They reach the place they are calling home for the moment and Erik carries Charles again. Raven stays ahead, opening doors and not looking at her brother. Erik doesn't bother to keep up, watching Charles. He looks up only once, so in tune that he can feel her stop. The front door is open. A battlefield lies beyond. Erik stares. Bodies everywhere, lying still on the floor. He sees a few humans, but not enough for it to have been a fair battle. He's there for a second, but takes everything in. His soldiers, his friends, his students. Everyone is gone.  
     His first instinct is protect Charles, prevent any more damage to the mind that's gone through so much. But suddenly he's moving, without his own volition, turning Charles, showing him everything. He doesn't recognise it and it scares him.  Then he glances at the man in his arms and it's clear who's in control. But Charles isn't gentle, isn't calm. Charles' presence is fire and anger and everything he never was.  
    'Shh....shh....' Erik realises he's whispering, rocking, but Charles' presence still seems to grow, angry and vengeful.  
  
 _Just close your eyes  
The sun is going down  
You'll be alright  
No one can hurt you now  
Come morning light  
You and I'll be safe and sound..._  
  
     Erik whispers Charles' name, but he goes ignored. He thinks, with all his might, but no attention comes to him. He sees Raven, kneeling beside Hank, crying. The beast was a survivor. Not any more.  
     And then suddenly there's nothing. Charles leaves his mind, as quickly as he'd come. Erik looks down. Charles' eyes are alight, with something he can't quite understand. He wonders if that's what Charles used to see in his own eyes.  
    He watches, unable to tear his eyes away, as the light in Charles' face slowly dies.  
    'I can hear them,' he whispers, 'Everywhere...'  
    Erik doesn't know what to say. He holds Charles close and rocks him, ever so slightly.  
     'Erik, I need to borrow your body,' The voice is but a whisper, but it isn't a question. Erik waits, scared but knowing he has no choice. His body turns around. He can feel Raven following, though she doesn't make a sound.  
  
     He doesn't remember much of what comes next. The hours go missing. There are flashes - people dying, humans, but he can't feel glad....destruction...buildings falling...people screaming, everywhere...  
  
    And suddenly he wakes, lying next to a body. Charles' body. And the voice is back in his head and it's comforting him, whispering...  
  _It's over now...Checkmate....They're gone...all gone...all gone...._  
    He's babbling and it sounds so, so wrong. Erik pulls himself up, exhausted and slow, though he doesn't know why. Charles' eyes are unfocused and dreamy, but they slowly drift to the direction of Erik's face.  
    _I have to go, Erik..._  
    They lock eyes, one last time, bright yet empty blue to Erik's own unsure grey. Erik shakes his head. It wasn't right. It wasn't supposed to happen. The war was supposed to end with mutants winning, but not like this. Not at the cost of all of them. A tear hits Charles' cheek and the telepath startles, smile slipping.  
    _Erik...What did I do..._  
    Erik doesn't answer out loud, pictures flashing behind his eyes without him calling them forward. Charles' freezes, eyes filled with tears.  
     _I did that...I didn't mean to...Erik...Erik..._  
     Charles is panicking and Erik, for once, doesn't know what to do.   
  
 _Just close your eyes  
You'll be alright  
Come morning light,  
You and I'll be safe and sound..._  
  
     'Charles...Charles, it's all okay...please...' He pats Charles' cheek, rocks him back and forth, desperately trying to calm him.  
     'Charles,' The telepath's eyes suddenly focus on him.  
     'I...' His voice is hoarse and barely-there and so very broken that Erik can hardly listen. 'I...can fix...this.'  
     Erik feels himself go slack. He knew Charles, could tell exactly what that tone meant. He can't speak, numb all over, shaking his head almost automatically.  
    'That...you...no.'  
    'May I...borrow...a little...energy?' Charles murmurs. Erik can't bring himself to refuse. He knows, without realising, that Charles would let him say no this time. He also knows that Charles can't do this on his own. He doesn't nod, doesn't have to. Charles knows.  
     It doesn't feel like anything on his end, but Charles' eyes brighten just a little and go distant again. He waits. He feels more than sees people around him rising, Charles' influence going both ways. Emotions flow through him, confusion, pain, sorrow. It feels like a physical onslaught, too much for him to bear. Until he looks into Charles' eyes and sees the pain there, knowing he is being protected from the worst. Only then does he focus on controlling it.  
     It lasts only a minute or so until everything suddenly stops. Erik releases a breath he didn't know he was holding, the people in his head suddenly gone. There is but a moment of relief. Until he realises Charles is gone too.  
    He looks down and can't tear his eyes away.  He watches, as the light slowly dies in Charles' eyes. He watches as Charles breathes out, slow and never-ending. He watches, as the voice in his head flickers once more, wordless, but a feeling of warmth, before fading to nothing.  
    Charles. He doesn't even know if he's speaking out loud, but he's projecting somehow, as hard as he can. _Take some more energy. Charles. Come back, come back. Take it all._  
  
 _You and I'll be safe and sound..._  
  
     There's something in his head, something so feather-light he has trouble focusing on it. Until suddenly it's bright and huge and fills his entire mind, leaving no room for awareness or memories. It's warmth and love and trust and everything Erik could have had and, in a way, all he did. It's Charles and not Charles. Charles and Erik. Everything they were and never were, all they shared and could have shared.  
    And then it's gone.  
  
 _Safe and sound...._  



End file.
